Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Microsoft has gone all in with its embrace of Android and its various moves towards making Windows 11 play nicely with Google’s mobile operating system.

We’ve already seen the Link to Windows app get some serious attention, and most recently Microsoft added a very Apple-like option to resume using a mobile app in Windows. An as-yet unannounced feature is clipboard sharing, and this has been unearthed in a preview build of Windows 11.

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The MKV format (Matroska Video) is one that has been around for a very long time now, and it is loved for its high quality and flexibility. It has been supported by many web browsers, and even Windows 10, for quite some time, but not Firefox.

But now Mozilla is taking action to address this. Some eight years after a Bugzilla post requested the addition of MKV support to the browser, a developer has been assigned the task of implementing MKV playback in Firefox. So, what happens now?

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For many people, Google Maps is absolutely indispensable, and Google is about to make the navigation tool even more useful in Android 16. Taking advantage of a new feature introduced in the latest version of its mobile operating system, Google Maps is gaining useful Live Updates support.

Live Updates are a new type of notification that are used in very specific circumstances – such as flight tracking, delivery tracking, or navigation. Google is experimenting with Google Maps integration and, if it is done correctly, it could be a game-changer.

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Google has taken the unusual move of addressing claims about a major Gmail security issue – claims the company says are “entirely false”.

Insisting that “Gmail’s protections are strong and effective”, Google does not specify which claims it is referring to or where they stem from. What is clear, though, is that the company has been rattled by whoever has tried to bring into question the security of its email platform.

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It was inevitable that it would happen one day, and that day appears to have arrived. YouTube is getting stricter about how a Premium Family plan can be used.

The rules that apply to YouTube Family Premium are not changing, but YouTube is now seemingly enforcing restrictions that it was previously happy to turn a blind eye to.

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With the UK having recently brought the Online Safety Act into force, age verification laws are having a huge effect on traffic to web sites. Predictably, sites which comply with age verification requirements have noticed a marked drop-off in visitor numbers, while the opposite is true for non-compliant sites.

In the UK, it is – currently – only pornographic sites that are supposed to implement age verification (although other sites are supposed to take action to prevent minors from accessing adult material as well). Working via a combination of facial scans and documentation checks, the impact of the law has been felt very quickly.

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WhatsApp has addressed a serious security flaw in certain versions of its app. The vulnerability was a zero-click exploit, which the company says was being used to target specific users.

No details have been provided about those who were being targeted, so it is not clear whether they are celebrities, people linked to businesses, or something else. What is interesting, however, is the fact that it was Apple users who had been single out.

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If you have more than one Android device, you have probably used the Google Play Store to install apps on a device other than the one in your hand. The ability to ‘remotely’ install apps in this way is a great time saver, and Google is expanding the management features available to users.

If you can install an app on not only the device in front of you but also another linked to your account, why not uninstall it in the same way? Technically, you can, but Google has made it so awkward that it puts most people off – until now.

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Microsoft is of the opinion that Windows 11 25H2 – the next big update for Windows 11 – is ready for public consumption. Although the update has not yet been given a full, formal release, it is now available as a public preview.

This means that Windows Insiders signed up to the Release Preview channel. However, Microsoft is yet to confirm just when the update will be made available to everyone. At the moment the company is not being any more specific than referring to “general availability later this calendar year”.

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Instagram has a handful of updates to explore – some available to everyone, others in testing with a smaller group. First up there are updates to the handling of DMs, something Instagram is billing as being aimed at creators.

While creators’ inboxes are likely to be busier than the average person, everyone can use the new DM tools which provide new ways to sort and filter messages. Another exciting development sees the testing of picture-in-picture video mode for viewing Reels.

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When you install an app, the chances are that you’re going to want to fire up straight away. To help with this, Google is in the process of rolling out a handy auto-open feature to Android users.

If this sounds familiar, that is because it is something Google was spotted working on back in the second half of last year. You would have been forgiven for thinking that the company had forgotten about it, but the auto-open toggle is back.

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Out of the blue, Typepad has announced that it is closing down. The stalwart blogging service says it was a "difficult decision to discontinue” operations, but does not give any details about the reasons behind it.

Users of Typepad have a little over a month until the service is gone forever, and anyone who would like to preserve their writing is urged to export their content.

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When it comes to casual, mobile-based language learning, Duolingo reigns supreme. And now Google Translate is ready to take it on head-to-head.

Until now, Google Translate has been a multi-tool for travellers, holidaymakers, businesspersons and immigrants. It serves as an on-demand dictionary and translation tool for dozens and dozens of languages, and the next step sees it branching out into language lessons.

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Anyone who has used Microsoft Word for a number of years will remember the times they have been saved by the autosave feature. The move to the cloud complicated things slightly meaning that many people lost files when Microsoft changed the way the feature worked.

Now the company has announced a significant change to Word that will help to dramatically reduce the risk of documents being lost by accident or because of something like a power outage or hardware failure. All Word documents are now saved  to the cloud by default.

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WhatsApp is getting another injection of artificial intelligence in the form of Writing Help. As you would guess from the name, this is a tool designed to help you come up with the perfect message for different scenarios.

With Writing Help being billed as something that could be of assistance in all manner of communication, there will be understandable concerns about privacy. WhatsApp is one step ahead of worried users here, pointing out that Writing Help is built on top of Private Processing technology.

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